338 



THE IRKIGATION AGE. 



in winter feeding of cattle and sheep, thus making a 

 market at their own stacks. Potatoes yield from 300 

 to 500 bushels per acre, and as high as 1,213 bushels 

 have been produced on an acre of irrigated land. Yet 

 it is estimated that 5,000 tons of potatoes a year are 

 imported into the State. 



The present projects under consideration by the 

 Federal Government look to the reclamation of over a 

 million acres of land in Montana. These comprise six 

 large enterprises in various sections of the State, and 

 the preliminary work has been commenced on all of 

 them. The Madison Eiver project, so-called, will divert 

 the waters of the Madison Eiver to reclaim at least 

 250,000 acres of land in the Galatin, Missouri and 

 Prickly Pear Valleys, including a strip at least one 

 hundred miles long from the head waters of the Missouri 

 to and including the Prickly Pear Valley, in which is 

 located Helena, the capital of the State. This vast area 



other project is under way which will reclaim 40,000 

 acres near Billings, called the Huntley Mat project and 

 the reclamation of a large portion of the Crow reserva- 

 tion, which is to be thrown open to settlement in the 

 near future, as soon as the surveys can be made. 



With these great projects the population of Montana 

 will be trebled in the near future. The lands reclaimed 

 will be sold to actual settlers in small tracts, which will 

 result in small farms, more productive than any in the 

 country, which under the stimulus of home markets for 

 their entire products will prove unusually profitable. 

 Fruit, vegetables, hay, grain, alfalfa, dairy, hog and 

 poultry products will find a market right at home and 

 thus the millions of dollars annually sent out of the 

 State for these products will be kept at home, while the 

 miners and mechanics of the State will secure the ad- 

 vantages of lower prices than are now paid for the 

 imported articles. 





Scene on Canyon Canal, near Emmett, Idaho. 



is more acessible to railways than any other in the 

 State, lying on both sides of the Northern Pacific and 

 in sight of it the entire distance, and being at the doors 

 of the two great markets of the State, Helena and Butte. 

 These lands when reclaimed will be the most productive 

 and most valuable of any in the Northwest, owing to 

 contiguity to markets and the demand and prices for 

 their products. 



The other projects under way are the Milk Eiver 

 Canal, which will reclaim 250,000 acres in Northern 

 Montana, and will prove of inestimable benefit to that 

 section of the State, as well as to the immense stock 

 interests which have their flocks and herds in that sec- 

 tion, affording winter feed for cattle and sheep. The 

 Sun Eiver project will reclaim 200,000 acres in middle 

 Northern Montana, and in addition to this the Conrad 

 project in the vicinity north of Great Falls will reclaim 

 at least 100,000 acres, a portion of the lands already 

 being under ditch. 



In Eastern Montana three projects are under way, 

 the Glendive-Buford, which will reclaim 190,000 acres 

 mostly in Montana and a small portion in Dakota. An- 



People from the East and middle West who are 

 thinking of changing their residence can do no better 

 than to thoroughly investigate the possibilities and 

 advantages in Montana. They will find an equable 

 climate, with no sudden changes ; bright and exhilerating 

 weather, immunity from severe storms in winter and 

 summer, and all conditions favorable for the making of 

 happy homes and the building up of a prosperous com- 

 munity. 



STUDYING ANCIENT IRRIGATION. 



An imperial irade authorizes Sir William Willcocks, 

 late director-general of reservoirs in Egypt, to examine 

 into the ancient irrigation system on the Tigris and 

 Euphrates, aond he has left for Bombay en route for 

 Bosra and Bagdad, where he hopes to make a prelim- 

 inary examination of the ground this winter, according 

 to the Egyptian Gazette. 



Send $2.50 for The Irrigation Age 

 I year, and The Primer of Irrigation 



